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Attack on ISKCON
<< 6 Keep your distance >>
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| This history, in most, devotees in Russia don't know. Prabhupāda was afraid that his Godbrothers would take advantage of his success. Therefore from the very beginning he told us, "Don't be disrespectful to my Godbrothers. Don't make offenses by being disrespectful. But keep your distance." We have a saying in English, "Good fences make good neighbors." We should not be disrespectful, especially to senior members of the Gauḍīya Maṭh, but we should not associate with them intimately, which means to live with them, to hear from them, to take their instructions. We're not supposed to associate intimately.
| | Someone may doubt that Prabhupāda actually said that. But I'll tell you a little story wherein I know Prabhupāda said that. One time, during Māyāpura festival, the sannyāsīs took us out on a parikramā. We went through different places of Lord Caitanya's pastimes, and on the way back the leading sannyāsī, Acyutānanda, and other leading sannyāsī, they took us to the Gauḍīya Maṭh temple of Śrīdhāra Swami. Śrīdhāra Swami was there, and he and different devotees at the Gauḍīya Maṭh received us nicely. And then he spoke to all of us. And in his talk he very subtly criticized Śrīla Prabhupāda. That, "He went to the Western countries, but any of us," he speaking about Gauḍīya Maṭh, "they could have also gone to the Western countries and have done so. You should respect all members of Gauḍīya Maṭh, not just Śrīla Prabhupāda."
| | Śrīdhāra Mahārāja is one of the most important sannyāsīs in Gauḍīya Maṭh. He now passed away, but he's a very important member of Gauḍīya Maṭh. And I have no doubt he went back to Godhead. But there was a little jealousy there. So, when we came back to our temple, Māyāpura temple, Māyāpura Candrodāya Maṇḍira, Prabhupāda heard that we went there, and he was furious. He was so angry that we visited the Gauḍīya Maṭh temple. And he called the devotees who were on the parikramā into his room. And he chastised the sannyāsīs in front of them. "I have told you many times, you must respect my Godbrothers but you're not to associate intimately with them." So anyone who says to me, "Where's this statement coming that Prabhupāda said we should not associate with Gauḍīya Maṭh?", I reply that it was part of the darśana that Prabhupāda gave.
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